10 things that can keep eating disorders going
10 Things that can keep eating disorders going
Eating disorders often develop as ways to cope— sometimes in response to stress, trauma, or experiences that felt unsafe or overwhelming. While they may offer a sense of control or comfort, certain patterns can unintentionally keep them going. Below are 10 common things that reinforce eating disorders.
Systemic Issues: Discrimination, food insecurity (not having enough food to eat), or our society’s weight bias, create shame and stress, disrupting appetite and leading to disordered eating.
Being Below Your Body’s Desired Weight: Known as your “set point”, being below your body’s natural weight triggers constant hunger, cravings, and slowed metabolism; often this leads to ongoing restriction and binge–restrict cycles.
Food Rules: Rigid rules (e.g., “no carbs”) cause guilt when broken, which can fuel bingeing or stricter restriction.
Restricting Food: Not eating enough in portion, timing, or variety causes fatigue, poor focus, extreme hunger, and binge urges.
Basing your Worth on Body or Control over your food: Linking self-esteem to weight, shape, or eating in a certain way reinforces body-checking, avoidance, and constant control.
Other Weight Control Behaviors: Vomiting, fasting, over-exercising, or using products to cancel out or “make up” for your eating keeps your body undernourished and locks the binge–restrict cycle into place.
Life Stress & Difficult Emotions: Using only disordered eating to cope with emotions and difficult life events prevents you from learning coping skills and keeps problems unresolved.
Low Self-Esteem: Feeling unworthy fuels the belief that changing your body will make you “enough.”
Perfectionism: Unrealistic standards drive self-criticism and rigid thinking, making “good enough” impossible, and the bar keeps raising.
Relationship Difficulties: Strained or unfulfilling relationships can lead to using disordered eating to avoid, communicate distress, or self-soothe.
The information shared in this blog is intended to educate and empower, not to replace medical or mental health services. It should not be used as a form of treatment. If you’re struggling or need individualized care, please reach out to a licensed professional.